1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic communities where individuals interact and exchange communications over local and world-wide networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to electronic identities and reputations established within such electronic communities.
2. Background of the Invention
Electronic communities have been used in the art to facilitate communications between two or more people. Electronic communities typically allow for exchange of information, ideas and opinions over an extended period of time, i.e., a discussion about a particular topic may be initiated by an individual posting a message on day one, and subsequent discussion participants may receive, view or respond to the message at a later date. Electronic communities are similar to non-electronic communities in that members of each electronic community can establish a reputation based on their participation within the community.
An electronic community generally provides one or more discussion forums and individual forums may be dedicated to particular topics. An electronic discussion forum may allow even participants new to the forum to review past discussion messages and therefore to fully participate in the forum. Well-known examples of such communities and electronic forums include Web-based and proprietary message boards (both public and private), USENET news groups, and electronic mailing lists. These electronic communities and discussion forums support both synchronous and asynchronous discussions, i.e., one or more participants may inject communications into the discussion at the same time, or nearly the same time, without disrupting the flow of communications. This allows each individual electronic discussion forum to be rich with communications spanning a wide variety of topics and subjects.
Other communities and electronic discussion forums may facilitate more traditional asynchronous-like communications by providing, e.g., interactive chat sessions. In these electronic communities and discussion forums, participants are typically online at the same time and are actively responding to messages posted by others. These discussion forums are similar to a traditional telephone discussion in that the information in exchanged in real-time. However, a significant difference is that the electronic discussion forums are, by their nature, written or recorded message transmissions, which may be saved for historical records or for analysis at a future date.
Although most electronic communities require each user to select an identity that is unique within a particular community, there are not currently any practical means for the user to correlate his or her electronic identity in one community or forum with his or her electronic identities in other communities or forums. This problem is addressed in the co-pending parent and grandparent applications and the co-pending application for a “System And Method For Establishing And Evaluating Cross-Community Identities In Electronic Forums,” filed Jun. 13, 2001, which is also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Another problem with the state of the art stems from one of the well-known benefits of electronic communities: the ability for users to maintain separation between their physical identity and their on-line identity or identities. Such anonymity is a cherished attribute of the modern electronic world and allows users the freedom to participate in a wide variety of discussion forums without being subjected to harassment or other unwelcome attention in realms outside of their participation in electronic communities and forums. A problem however arises when an individual wishes to “speak” in an electronic community or forum as a bona fide member of some organization without revealing his or her actual identity.
In the current state of the art, a user participating in an electronic community or forum may claim membership in a particular organization or group of organizations. However, the user cannot currently “prove” such membership without either revealing his or her true identity in the electronic mediums. Moreover, if the user claims some special authority to speak on behalf of the organization, there is currently no way for the user to establish his or her authority while still retaining anonymity with the electronic mediums. This presents a problem for both the users and organizations, neither of which have heretofore been able to establish and manage relationships between pseudonymous identities in electronic mediums and memberships in those organizations.